Horton

By Jessica Langdon/Times Record News
November 20, 2004

A Wichita County jury handed down a stiff sentence Friday to a man area law enforcement agencies say was one of the county's biggest methamphetamine manufacturers.

Don Marshall Horton, 32, received three concurrent 99-year prison terms and a $150,000 fine.

Jurors in 78th District Court found Horton guilty Thursday of three counts of manufacturing a controlled substance - methamphetamine - over 400 grams for incidents Oct. 26, 2003, March 27 and April 19.

"This is a very large case in that there were six separate law enforcement agencies involved in this," Assistant District Attorney Dobie Kosub said.

"I thought it was too much for a person with no prior convictions," defense attorney Frank Trotter said.

Testimony started Tuesday in Horton's trial.

Witnesses detailed three drug busts.

One happened at a hut on an oil lease near Electra, another came when Wichita Falls police officers found a strong chemical smell coming from a garage at 901 N. Brook St. and a third happened when officers responded to an address on Huntington Lane.

Authorities seized more than $45,000 worth of drugs, Kosub said. An investigator from the North Texas Regional Drug Task Force described equipment, liquids and other items take from the scenes.

Kosub told jurors there were two common denominators among the three incidents.

The first - "There's a lot of dope at every scene," he said. The second similarity was that Horton was present at each one.

Trotter argued later that mere presence was not enough and said Horton complied with authorities' orders every time.

Kosub recalled testimony from a game warden who said activity in the metal building near Electra was "like Thanksgiving dinner," with several people, all busy with different tasks.

Horton was arrested that time along with three others, Kosub said. Another incident that happened in November 2003 came up during the sentencing phase of the trial.

"What's odd is that this particular defendant didn't stop," Kosub said. He told jurors Horton bonded out of jail and went back to manufacturing drugs.

Horton's mother testified Friday against a severe sentence that would keep her son locked away for years. She described a normal childhood filled with sports, good grades and employment. He loved his son and daughter, she said.

Drugs made her son a different person and had a huge impact on her whole family, she said.

"My grandkids tell me I'm not 'Nanny' anymore because I have to be somebody else," she said tearfully.

The grandparents have to discipline the kids now, instead of letting someone else handle that job so they can just take the kids out to dinner or buy new toys.

"Has meth affected my life?" she said. "Oh, yeah." She said she believed rehabilitation was possible for her son.

"You all need to realize that it can happen to anybody," she said.

"I did everything Dobie said I did," Horton said when he took the stand Friday. "Y'all made a good choice."

He cried as he said he deserved to go to prison but didn't want to spend the rest of his life there. He hit the table in front of him with his hand and said, "I want to be the person I used to be."

Trotter described a year filled with mistakes his client made.

"Is that worth the rest of his life?" he asked. He said Horton already lost his children because of what he'd done and argued against life in prison or other possible sentences ranging up to 99 years.

Kosub said instead of mistakes, each incident was a choice Horton had made. He said Horton had never sought help. He said he wasn't addicted to drugs, but he was addicted to the money that came from the manufacturing.

He talked about Horton's child, who knows his daddy really isn't his daddy anymore. He never wanted another child in this community to have to say that "because of the dope he's selling," he told the jury.

Kosub said the case was no longer about Horton but was about everyone else in the courtroom and in the community.

He referred to a comment about the ripple effect methamphetamine has.

"The ripple expands. That ripple hits like a tidal wave and destroys everything in its path," he said. He said he was glad Wichita County residents were willing to fight back.

He knows sending Horton to prison won't end meth problems in the area, especially since it's so easy to make.

"I do know that nobody's going to be buying from Don Horton for a long time," he said.

Trotter said Horton would be eligible for parole in 15 years, and the defense would discuss the possibility of appealing.

Kosub said cooperation between several agencies made a big difference, and the district attorney's office and law enforcement "are just going to keep hammering at it."

Crime reporter Jessica Langdon can be reached at (940) 763-7530 or by e-mail at langdonj(at)TimesRecordNews.com.

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